The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has come under fire for breaching federal law by employing racial discrimination in its admissions process, aimed at diversifying the student body, according to federal officials on Monday.
The Justice Department accused the institution of utilizing a “shadow application process” that favored Black and Hispanic applicants, highlighting these claims in a pointed letter to the school.
According to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, any form of discrimination based on race is illegal, and the Supreme Court decision in 2023 affirmed that racial discrimination in college admissions is prohibited.
An investigation by the Justice Department revealed that the prestigious medical school manipulated applicant data.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon stated that the San Diego School of Medicine’s clear attempts to prioritize racial considerations are illegal, and vowed to eradicate such practices.
She mentioned that the shadow process unfairly evaluated applicants based on race instead of standardized test scores or GPAs.
The department reported that admissions officers assessed answers to hardship-related questions in applications to identify Black or Hispanic students, leading to their acceptance. Consequently, more qualified White and Asian candidates were turned away in favor of less qualified minority applicants.
This approach was deemed unlawful by a recent Supreme Court ruling against Harvard University, which prohibited the use of race in higher education admissions.
Dhillon’s letter emphasized that the San Diego School of Medicine had systematically discriminated against various applicants by basing admissions decisions on race instead of merit. She wrote that discriminatory practices likely persist today.
The Justice Department’s inquiry commenced in March and entailed a review of UC San Diego’s internal documents and admissions data from 2019 through the previous year.
The results revealed that the admissions team maintained a shadow system that flagged Black and Hispanic applicants as having overcome “challenges,” inadvertently prioritizing them.
In striving for racial diversity, the medical school adopted evaluation criteria where applicants faced differing GPA and test score requirements based on race, with Black and Hispanic students needing a 3.1 GPA compared to the 3.50 GPA expected of White and Asian students.
This resulted in a situation where Black and Hispanic students admitted had lower academic performance when compared to their peers, reinforcing the systemic issue in admissions practices. The acceptance rate for Black candidates was significantly higher than that for White candidates.
The Justice Department is urging the San Diego School of Medicine to reform its admissions practices to reach a settlement. If they fail to do so, a federal lawsuit may follow.
No immediate comment was received from the San Diego School of Medicine regarding the Justice Department’s findings.
